


the common tongue of you loving me

by steepedinwords



Category: Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Established Relationship, F/F, Kissing, Pets, Pumpkins, fic-or-treat exchange
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-01
Updated: 2019-11-01
Packaged: 2021-01-16 13:27:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,091
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21271772
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/steepedinwords/pseuds/steepedinwords
Summary: Trevelyan gets a puppy. Josephine falls in love.





	the common tongue of you loving me

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Pluttskutt](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pluttskutt/gifts).

> For pluttskutt - a belated fic-or-treat gift. Hope you enjoy!
> 
> Title is from Hozier's Moment's Silence.

“You didn’t.”

  
Josephine’s exclamation has Evelyn Trevelyan scuffing her boot on the floor, looking absurdly sheepish for a woman of her height. She glances up at Josephine over the small sleepy bundle in her arms. “Um. Would it help if I said he’s an orphan?”

  
Josephine looks from the puppy in Evelyn’s arms to her face, the earnest anxiety there, and gives in to the smile tugging at the corner of her mouth. “Evelyn, you’re the Inquisitor. You don’t have to ask permission to have a dog.”

  
“But I wanted him to be - ” Evelyn hesitates. “Both of ours. If you want.”

  
The puppy chooses this moment to wake up and yawn prodigiously, displaying a tiny pink tongue and needle-sharp teeth. Josephine’s heart melts. She leans up and brushes a soft kiss across Evelyn’s cheek.

  
“Thank you for thinking of me, _mi amor_.” It’s hard to put a name to the tender feeling she always has at the idea of Evelyn making space for her in her life, thinking of her while the Inquisition forces are away from Skyhold, even as Josephine often thinks of her. The affection between them is new, only a few months old, but they miss each other terribly in those absences. Perhaps that was part of the thought, that this tiny golden ball of fluff could be good company against the loneliness that encroaches on Josephine sometimes despite her best efforts to keep busy. It would be like Evelyn to think of that.  
She lets Evelyn pull her in with one arm as they smile at each other. “Maybe I could help you name him?”

  
\------

  
They call the puppy Bear, the name hilariously at odds with his size but fitting his demeanour. He settles in well at Skyhold, following Evelyn around everywhere when she’s home and curling at Josephine’s side when Evelyn is away. He takes to sitting on Josephine’s feet while she works at her desk, and the warmth and company is welcome. It doesn’t take her long to fall as deeply in love with the puppy as Evelyn has (and the rest of Skyhold, for that matter.) Soon Bear is always to be found with Josephine, at Evelyn’s side, or in the kitchen, begging for scraps.

  
It’s after one of these excursions to the kitchen that Evelyn receives a harried message from one of the staff to come to the kitchen immediately, and she hurries there, feeling anxious. Bear is a little mischievous, and he’s made trouble in the kitchen before. She has been training him, but sometimes, if food smells particularly delicious, he forgets that he’s only supposed to eat what’s given to him, and then they all have grumpy kitchen staff to deal with for a few days.

  
The staff have been cooking squash, it seems. Pumpkins and various other gourds are being seeded, chopped, and baked into pies or roasted to serve with the meat for dinner. The huge stone room is echoing with bustling activity, full of the smell of cinnamon and apples, and in the corner, Evelyn spots her very unrepentant-looking small dog, being watched over by a maid. Pumpkin innards have been spilled and smeared all over the floor, and two more staff members are sweeping them up, looking irritated at the interruption to dinner preparations.

  
“Oh, Bear, what have you done now?” She directs the question to the people more than to her dog, who just looks at her with mirth written all over his face.

  
“Only rolled in all the leavings from the pumpkins,” the maid holding Bear’s collar says in disgust. Bear has certainly done a very thorough job of making a mess. His golden fur is slicked down and sticky with stringy orange vegetable bits. Pumpkin seeds are mashed into the mess like a bizarre decoration. Evelyn sighs, crouches down and scoops him up into her arms, carrying her armful of wriggling puppy out of the kitchen with apologies cast behind in her wake.

  
She’s never actually washed a dog before, but it can’t be too hard. The tub in her own quarters would work, but she’d rather not have to clean fur out of it afterwards.

Instead, she carries a protesting Bear out to the stables, where she unearths a large old tub. Filling it with conjured ice while trying to keep Bear from seizing the chance to escape is the work of a few minutes, and then she melts the ice with a heating spell until the water is warm. She rolls up her sleeves and sets to work.

  
Bear objects strenuously. Evelyn’s attempts to talk him gently through the process don’t seem to be helping, and they are both soaked and covered in pumpkin goo when a familiar laugh sounds in the courtyard. Evelyn looks up to see Josephine giggling at them both.

  
“You could come and help me,” Evelyn puffs. She doesn’t really mean it - Josephine is in a gown that looks a little too fine for wrestling a wet dog - but Josephine immediately comes over and kneels beside her. Bear calms a little at her touch, and Evelyn manages to scrub the rest of the mess out of his fur.

  
“Sorry, your dress is getting dirty,” she says, looking up at Josephine. She knows how much some of Josephine’s dresses cost, and how vital they are to the impression the Inquisition makes on its visitors.

  
“No matter. I changed into an old dress,” Josephine replies cheerfully. Sure enough, there’s a dark stain down the whole front of the skirt. Evelyn dimly remembers a clumsy envoy spilling his wine on it a few weeks ago. “Here, I brought a towel.”

  
The peace of the autumn day returns. Bear is calm now, letting Evelyn direct gentle wind gusts to dry him properly. The end result has them both laughing helplessly - Bear’s fur puffs out gently, making him look like a small, fierce dandelion.

  
“Skyhold’s most fearsome guardian,” Josephine gasps, wiping away tears of laughter. In the sunshine, her hair glints like black silk, coming down out of its neat bun into wisps around her face. The front of her dress is drenched, there’s a smear of pumpkin up her sleeve, and Evelyn wants nothing more than to kiss both of the dimples brought out by her laugh. Bear takes advantage of her distraction to escape, dancing away to chase a leaf blowing across the courtyard. And Evelyn gathers Josephine into her arms, and they both forget about the mess, embracing in the sunshine while Bear frolics around them.

  
She couldn’t be happier.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to my partner K, who suggested the puppy scenario.  
I pictured Bear as a Pomeranian, and yes, my "research" for this story consisted of a google image search for "blow dried Pomeranian." I recommend it.


End file.
